INTRODUCTION: Articular cartilage is commonly injured and current tissue engineering strategies cannot as yet fabricate new tissue that is indistinguishable from native cartilage with respect to zonal organization, ECM composition, and mechanical properties. Almost all current strategies of cartilage repair involve a procedure of removing healthy cartilage tissue around the lesion to create art...

Articular cartilage is a very complex composite material, overlaying diarthrodial joints surfaces (e.g. knee, shoulder, temporomandibular, etc.), holding load bearing, lubrication and shock absorbing capabilities [1]. Characterization of articular cartilage material properties is necessary to study its mechanical response and consequently its impact on joints biomechanics [2]. Furthermore, the ...

To address the significant clinical need for tissue-engineered therapies for the repair and regeneration of articular cartilage, many systems have recently been developed using bioactive polymer microspheres as regulators of the chondrogenic microenvironment within high-density cell cultures. In this review, we highlight various densely cellular systems utilizing polymer microspheres as three-d...

Adult stem cells from the dermal layer of skin are an attractive alternative to primary cells for meniscus engineering, as they may be easily obtained and used autologously. Recently, chondroinducible dermis cells from caprine skin have shown promising characteristics for cartilage tissue engineering. In this study, their multilineage differentiation capacity is determined, and methods of expan...

Tissue engineering is an increasingly popular method of addressing pathological disorders of cartilage. Recent studies have demonstrated its clinical efficacy, but there is little information on the structural organisation and biochemical composition of the repair tissue and its relation to the adjacent normal tissue. We therefore analysed by polarised light microscopy and immunohistochemistry ...